Moiré Fringe Induced Gauge Field in Photonics

Abstract

We realize moiré fringe induced gauge field in a double-layer photonic honeycomb metacrystal with mismatched lattice constants. Benefitting from the generated strong effective gauge field, we report direct measurement of the band diagrams of both Landau level flat bands and intermagnetic-domain edge states. Importantly, we observe the correlation between the momentum and orbital position of the Landau modes, serving as an evidence of the noncommuteness between orthogonal components of the momentum. Without complicated time driving mechanics and careful site-by-site engineering, moiré superlattices could emerge as a powerful means to generate effective gauge fields for photonics benefiting from its simplicity and reconfigurability, which can be applied to nonlinearity enhancement and lasing applications at optical frequencies.